


Throw Me For a Loop

by 1tskillingm3



Series: Time Witches [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Asexual Character, Fluff, M/M, Magic, Teasing, character that struggles with reality, character's with anxiety, it's back friends!, my favorite combo, society within a society, time witch au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-06-02 06:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6554995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1tskillingm3/pseuds/1tskillingm3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Semi had never thought of what he could do as a gift. But when he meets Akaashi- an extraordinarily powerful Time Witch that has mastered his powers to an incredible degree- Semi begs him to take him on as a appreciate because he feels he will go insane otherwise. But Akaashi sends him to a seemingly normal human named Kenma telling him that he will be the key to everything.<br/>He’s more right than he knows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yay! more Time Witch AU!
> 
> Just watch, I am going to drag you all into rare pair hell

“Wow Semi, you kind of have terrible fashion sense.” Said Tendou wincing when they saw him.

“Why do you always have to be so rude about it?” snapped Semi. He glanced down at his clothes: a red and white stripped shirt, a pair of brightly colored floral pants, and hiking boots. He thought the clothes were quite pretty and these were his favorite shoes. But no matter what he wore, Tendou always had this vaguely horrified look on him.

“What do you mean by ‘always’? I’ve literally never said anything about it before.” Blinked Tendou.

It wasn’t actually. It was the 37th time he’d said that to 37 different outfits. All had been rejected. Not that Tendou knew that. As far as they could tell, this _was_ the first time they’d ever said something.

“Whoa, dude, are you, like, crying?” Tendou asked slightly panicked.

“No.” snapped Semi though his eyes were prickling with heat. He _hated_ being an angry crier.

“Hey, hey, Semi, I am sorry. Really, dude! I was just teasing you, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.” Tendou rambled worriedly, “You might not be good with clothes but it’s, like, part of your charm.”

“It’s fine. I am not- you’re fine Tendou.” Semi sighed trying to pass off brushing his hair behind his ears and also get the little bits of excess water and the corners of his eyes too, “Sorry, I’ve just- It’s been a shit month.”

“But you were in such a good mood yesterday.” Tendou said frowning.

Well- on Tendou’s yesterday- he had been. He’d managed to go 5 whole days without a “incident” happening and he’d thought… damn it he’d started to think he might be getting better.

“I just- I need a little space.” Semi said waving him off and hunching his shoulders defensivly.

“Okay… take you’re time. You’ll talk to me tomorrow though, right?” Tendou asked uncertainly.

“Yeah. Sure. Tomorrow.” Semi said with a trace of bitterness. If they were both having the same tomorrow then he’d certainly be in a better mood.

Otherwise he supposed Tendou would teasingly insult whatever his choice of clothing was.

Semi wandered off idly through the city. He passed the neighbor who was yelling their roommate again. Semi had all the words of it memorized. He passed the couple that was soulfully confessing their love under the cherry blossoms for the 37th time. He passed the car that blew out its tire as it was driving and jerked into the curb. The cat’s that chased each other onto the wall.

37 times Semi had repeated this exact day. Nothing changed. Except him… And he couldn’t fucking make it stop.

“Wow. Those are some pretty sick pants.” Semi’s head snapped up and stared at the man standing in front of him. Messy bedhead streaked with white and a wide Cheshire grin.

But more than that, this man had _never_ been here any of the other 37 repeat days.

“Hey, you okay?” the guy asked worriedly. Semi couldn’t speak, the day was still repeating but even so something had broken-

“Hey Tetsurou, keep your eyes open, I am pretty sure we’re close-“ a beautiful man appeared next to the other, cutting off as he spotted him. Another man who wasn’t supposed to be in this repeated day.

And he was looking at him with such intensity that Semi felt like he was being x-rayed.

“You’re the Witch.” He stated.

“I-“ Semi’s voice cracked, he glanced between them swallowing, “What’s going on?”

“My name is Akaashi Keiji,” the man said ignoring his question, “I am a Kairos as well.”

Semi tried not to gape at him. What did he mean? He was like Semi-?

“We need to speak. But first,” Akaashi said reaching out and laying a hand on Semi’s head, and gods he’d thought the other’s eyes were black but on further inspection they were a dark, _dark,_ green flecked with gold, “First, this loop needs to end.”

Akaashi didn’t move, but suddenly Semi’s knees buckled as the world seemed to lurch violently forward very fast.

****

“Kid, you alright?” the messy haired man is leaning over him worriedly and Semi realizes he’s laying on a couch somewhere with a cool cloth pressed to his forehead. He must have blacked out.

“Don’t call me kid, we’re like the same age.” Semi grumbled, though he glanced curiously at the white hairs streaking the other’s fridge. They seemed to come right from his roots. Semi didn’t ask.

“Ah, kid, age is just a number. Even less then that actually in the circles we run in.” laughed the other at some kind of private joke.

“ _We?_ ” asked Semi apprehensively.

“Yes, we.” Said Akaashi coming back in with a cup of tea, “Drink this, it will help settle your body back onto a more normal time track.”

“I’ll give you two some space.” The other man said quickly giving Semi’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze before ducking out.

“What happened?” asked Semi uncertainly, he felt a bit like the other two were speaking a different language.

“I came to find you because the elders in the community caught wind of loop that had been created in this part of time for the past month or so. They ordered me to bring you in for trial.” Said Akaashi bluntly.

Semi swallowed. This didn’t sound good. He knew he’d screwed up, but honestly usually everybody was so stuck on repeat that they never remembered how badly he’d screwed up.

“You don’t seem malicious to me though,” said Akaashi tilting his head, “Just inexperienced. I’ll file up your excuse so you should be fine provided that you don’t do something like this again.”

“What if- What if I can’t control it though?” Semi asked. His emotions were a mess. He felt scared. He felt angry. He felt confused. Not necessarily in that order.

“You’ll need to learn.” Akaashi said simply, “Loops are dangerous for all involved, especially if they go on for as long as this one did. You’re going to have to find a method to keep yourself in check or next time another Kairos finds you they are going to put you down.”

“That’s not fair.” Semi protested, “I don’t even know what I am doing that is making this happen. How can I be expected to not do it again?”

“Your gift is a rare one, I don’t believe that there are any other Kairos that can loop in this century to teach you. They’re all probably wandering around somewhere in the past. I am sorry but you’ll have to figure out the specifics of your talent on your own. It’s not something that anyone else can truly teach you.”

“But you can help can’t you?” Semi insisted almost angrily. Or it probably looked angry. On the inside he was panicking, “You clearly know a lot more than me. And you made it stop even when I couldn’t.”

“I can force time to resynch regardless of your presence.” Agreed Akaashi, “But I am very powerful, if I were to do that often your body wouldn’t hold up under the strain.”

“Then at least teach me what you know.” Semi demanded, begged. Akaashi had called what he could do a gift, but honestly Semi saw it more as a curse and frankly he was desperate for any way out at this point.

Akaashi stared at him with what might have been pity.

“Please!” insisted Semi.

“Okay.” Akaashi said softly.

“Okay?” Semi asked blinking in surprise.

“Yes, okay.” Akaashi repeated, an odd look in his eyes, “I’ll make you my apprentice and teach you what I can, but I make promises on the results. That will be up to you.”

“Thank you.” Semi let himself slump slightly, “Thank you, I promise I’ll work hard.”

“I believe you.” Said Akaashi but his expression was grim.

“I am sensing there is a ‘but’ in there somewhere.” Semi noted with apprehension.

“Indeed.” Agreed Akaashi, “Because we will not get very far in lessons if I am always having to force you out of one loop or another. You’ll end up spending more time unconscious than conscious if we do that. You’ll need some measure of control first.”

“But _how?_ ” Semi asked hoarsely, “I’ve been telling you I can’t even-“

“I know.” Said Akaashi and suddenly he smiled. Strangely, the sight made Semi _very_ uneasy, “Which is why I am going to send you to spend some time with a dear friend of mine first. If you can’t gain some control of yourself with him, you won’t ever be able to. Mmm, but I think you’ll do fine with him.”

Semi had a feeling his fate had just been sealed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter
> 
> Much talk of space and time in this chapter there is ;)

“Call me and let me know how he’s doing.” Akaashi was telling a person with blond and brown hair. He was shorter than him, hair tied up in tiny ponytail that was half falling out, baggy comfortable clothes and slouched posture. He looked about Semi’s age… except- except that his eyes were an unearthly shade of gold and the air about him seemed almost… ageless.

After spending the last two days with Akaashi on top of his own experience, Semi was not about to make judgments about time.

“Make sure you regularly let me know when you are so we don’t get too off even if he loops.” He said softly.

“Of course Kenma. And if he creates a loop that’s too concrete for you to mediate, send me a message and I’ll come break it.” Akaashi said seriously, “Though I think you understand why we want to avoid that.”

“Obviously.” Grimaced Kenma. Semi tried not to shift around to obviously, but he didn’t much like them talking about him while he was there like some kind of child.

“We’re off then! Don’t just call Akaashi, I want to know how your keeping up too.” Kuroo said sternly wrapping an arm around Kenma warmly. Kenma swayed backwards for a moment at the contact before intentionally leaning into it. There was a closeness between them that Semi couldn’t put his finger on. It wasn’t like the closeness between Kuroo and Akaashi, but there was still that fierceness and almost intimacy about the air between the two.

“Be careful.” Was all Kenma ordered. He seemed to be speaking to Akaashi a bit more than Kuroo, though both nodded seriously before they departed with a nod and a smile in Semi’s general direction.

Semi felt a bit like a kid that’d just been passed off to a grudging babysitter.

* * *

 

“Hold still.” Kenma told him not meeting his eyes as he attached strange looking cuffs to each of Semi’s wrists.

“What, am I your prisoner?” grumbled Semi.

“You’re something far worse.” Kenma grumbled back equally unhappily.

“What’s that?” asked Semi.

“A guest.” Said Kenma wrinkling his nose slightly, “If you were my prisoner I could go play a game while you oh so unfortunately escaped. As a guest, Kuroo actually expects me to take care of you.”

“Pfft, wait are you serious?” snorted Semi a little bit uncertainly.

“I hope you know how to cook. Because I won’t be.” Deadpanned Kenma, “I eat when I remember. But you’ll probably need more than that and I assume you don’t like food that’s been charred to a crisp so you’ll be making your own.”

“Why the cuffs then?” asked Semi since he wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“Akaashi said you loop time. Those cuffs will let us know if you do.” Said Kenma abandoning him to go curl up on the couch with his phone.

“…how?” said Semi standing awkwardly in the doorway.

“No idea.” Said Kenma hunching over slightly and determinedly not looking at him.

“Really?” snorted Semi under his breath. He might not be a guess genius like Tendou, but he could read basic human body language and Kenma was rather unapologetically lying to him.

Kenma continued texting and the stress and tension that had been building since Semi got himself caught in a loop that lasted a month suddenly snapped.

“Look here Kenma, I get that you’re not happy about babysitting me- I’m not happy about it either- but right now I don’t know anything about what I can do except that it’s been wrecking my life and apparently I can get killed if I do it again. So please, you don’t have to like me but just explain to me what going on.” Semi said planting himself in front of Kenma. Gold eyes surveyed him silently with keen intelligence unfazed by his outburst. Semi had the feeling that he was being deconstructed and analyzed bit by bit to see if he was worth it.

“Light.” Kenma said finally looking away.

“What?” blinked Semi.

“Your cuffs. They store light.” Kenma explained carefully even as he resumed texting, “space-time affects physical matter as well as some metaphysical things such as though and memory. Light however, seems to be unaffected by space-time. Your cuffs store light in the form of a charge and in an instance where space-time gets altered at all they will release their stored charge briefly a few moments before the affects of the alteration takes place.”

When Semi continued to stare at him blankly Kenma sighed.

“They’ll glow.” He said giving Semi a look.

“But…” Semi said struggling to absorb this, “But isn’t light the most obvious sign of the passing of time? Like, night and day and all that?”

“Honestly,” breathed Kenma, “Are the teachers in your time really that incompetent or are you that stupid?”

“Excuse me?” Semi reeled back a bit not used to people being so blunt with him.

“Light does not change with the passing of time: the earth does. By turning, orbiting, angling etc. etc. But light itself is not affected by it, we just sometimes have less access to that light.” Kenma explained.

“Oh.” Replied Semi not sure what else to say. He wasn’t stupid, it was just… a lot to take in and dealt with a lot more abstract concepts than he was used to dealing with on a day-to-day basis.

He wondered if maybe he should have been taking notes.

“Okay, so the cuffs will let me know if I start to accidentally make a loop, so how do I stop it?” Semi decided to ask his more pressing questions. Kenma contemplated him for a moment, then, without warning, threw the water glass that had been sitting beside him at the floor at Semi’s feet.

“What the hell?!” Semi exclaimed jumping back.

“You can not learn how to _stop_ doing something if you do not first learn how it is you’re doing it in the first place.” Kenma told him making himself comfortable on the couch again, “Make a loop and fix the cup. Since you can’t loop me unless I decide to let you, the cup will remain fixed because I won’t throw it again.”

“But- I mean I guess that makes sense, but I still don’t know how to make a loop.” Semi protested.

“That’s not my problem.” Kenma told him.

“But-“ Semi complained hopelessly staring at the pile of shattered glass. He didn’t even know where to start. He didn’t feel anything usually when he started a loop it just kinda… happened. And staring at the glass so hard his vision blurred didn’t seem to trigger anything either. The glass stayed shattered and his cuffs lifeless.

“If you’re not going to fix it, at least clean it up: I like walking around barefoot.” Kenma told him.

“I- I don’t think I can do this.” Semi admitted.

“Okay. Broom is in the pantry.” Kenma told him.

“What if I can’t ever figure it out?” asked Semi.

“That would be bad.” Kenma stated.

“No shit.” Muttered Semi going to get the broom.

“Eita.” It was the first time Kenma had directly and Semi jumped at being addressed so casually by someone he’d just met that day.

“Yeah?” he asked cautiously.

“Is the white from when Akaashi pulled you out of the loop?” asked Kenma looking for the first time genuinely troubled.

“I- what?” asked Semi blinking at him.

“Never mind.” Muttered Kenma going back to his phone. Shaking his head, Semi left the room to go hunt for the broom. Still, that seemed like a random and strange statement. Not to mention, something about Kenma’s tone sent a tickle of worry up his spine.

What white? Was this another weird Time-Magic thing? What on earth was-

Semi paused suddenly as he passed a mirror in the hallway. Foreboding hung heavy in his stomach as he stepped closer to the mirror and pushed up his bangs. The light color made it almost invisible given his black hair and the fact the there wasn’t much of it but still…

White. Since Akaashi had pulled him out of the loop the roots of his hair had turned white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contrary to popular depictions, I don’t really see Kenma as having a cuddly personality. He can be convinced to be cuddly by the right kind of people in the right situation, but as a general rule he is a bit prickly and kinda salty too at times. Semi is extremely salty and rather prickly at first as well. You might even call them a salty prickly pear. I mean pair.  
> I am a lame person with a lame sense of humor sorry if you’re just figuring that out now.


End file.
